Tip Top Trail

I had the opportunity to wheel this nasty little piece of trail with some of
my Arizona Virtual Jeep Club members....Bill Mish, Ross Skinner & son, Keith
Auble, and Rob Wilson, and Becky (who would never tell me her last name!).
The trail is located on the south side of FR52, just across from the Forest
Dept. Helo Pad near Horse Thief Basin Recreation Area. The GPS puts it 4.0
miles SSE of Crown King.

I always do my own write-ups for my web page. However, Bill did such an
outstanding trail report, and posted it on the VJC club reflector, that I just
can't pass up the opportunity to use it here. The pictures of the Jeeps on
the trail were graciously taken by Rob and are used with permission. I
took the ones of us stacking the Jeeps after we got back up the hill. Rob and
Keith hang with the folks from www.alloffroad.com.

Bill writes:

Where to begin. Originally, it started out as a small idea I had when I
discovered the road about a year ago. It was what appeared to be a road up to
Crown King from Table Mesa or Black Canyon city. I checked topo maps, it
appeared to go through to within 3/4 of a mile to the old FR52 from Packer. The
upper end of the road from Packer has been closed due to the "Horsethief
wilderness area" designation in the area.

I finally got to wheel it this weekend. It didn't go through as I had
expected. At least not in the sense of passable by vehicle travel. Our
attempt makes for a good story though, so here goes.

I dropped my truck and trailer off in Black Canyon City. I drove the Maggie
Mine trail up into the Bumble Bee trail with Eric in his YJ. Greg Banfield And
Chet were on Quads. We got as far as Cleator, when Greg's wife Dodi and Glen
caught up to us in his CJ-7. We went up the hill (the front way), and took a
pause for the "b" cause at the saloon and hotel on the west side of
the street, before heading on up. Eric had turned around to head back home in
his YJ, he was out of time.

When we finally arrived at Tip Top trailhead, Stu was already there. I
FINALLY MEET THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND, Stu Olson!!

Brief introductions, I began bowing feverishly,(in true to form "we're
not worthy" fashion) before he sent me scampering off for firewood. It was
getting dark. Greg Chet and Dodi weren't staying up there, and now their time
was up, so they headed back down the hill. Keith, Rob and Becky were next to
arrive in Keith's TJ. Stu and I were swapping stories and pouring over the
maps for a plan of attack like 2 generals chasing victory......or not... Anyway
we were interrupted by the clamorous entrance.

"Friends of yours?" Stu asked. To which I replied, " Just
wait, It gets worse!!" Stu wisely decided on the "peaceful"
campsite he already established and sent us down the way. We lit the fire. It
was Big. Fair warning if you camp with us. Don't worry, you won't hurt our
feelings! The trio wanted to go back to town for a Fireman's fund raiser
that promised lots of excitement and fun. I opted to seclude myself in camp,
enjoying the magnificent view of the city lights, the moon, the peace and quiet
of the mountains and the cool breeze blowing thru camp. I am a self proclaimed
complex and diverse man, which would explain The Kid Rock cd blaring from my
stereo the next morning......

The trio came back......at 2:00am, I woke and joined in on the party, which
ended at 3:00am. I woke with the sun at 5:30am, rekindled the fire, ate some of
the most magnificent one's "most magnificent Breakfast burritos".
Great Job, Stu!!

Ross never arrived, until now, so we broke camp while he attended to his last
minute details. The most exciting part of the trail is the first 600-800 yards
of near vertical decomposed granite (no traction) hill. Which rises approx 1200
feet on the Topo. The remainder of the trail was pretty much a bust, since we
had to turn around and come back..... No one was looking forward to tackling the
hill, but unless we go up, we can't leave. Ross was 1st, and made it up
the 1st section with grave difficulty. The second section, he winched himself
up, due to some advice from me to try the hill in first gear low. He made good
progress, I didn't want him to lose the progress he made to this point without
breaking, so I advised him to winch, and so he did. Next up was Keith Auble (Crus)
and, while we were getting Ross' Jeep in position to winch the rest of us up,
Keith DROVE to the top! As all our jaws dropped in amazement, Keith was
beaming ear to ear, and high fiving us. Next was Stu, he too winched after
making fantastic progress, however a rock which his Jeep slid into while
struggling for traction, managed to scratch his rim and partly tear his valve
stem. It didn't leak, and the wise thing to do was winch from this position, to
prevent further damage. I was last up the hill, and having the advantage
of watching what worked and what didn't, I drove up in 2nd gear 4lo with a whole
lot of dust and cool air under my tires. We all made it to the top after that,
stacking our Jeeps in celebration (childish, I know, but it was my idea....).
Those who went thanks for the
wonderful memories........... Then there was the trip down to civilization. But
that is another adventure all together!!

Bill Mish
Yldkat
1955 Willys CJ3B

Here are some pics that Rob took while we were
wheelin. I am going to have to get some kind of a Jeep CAM mounted on my
TJ so I can get more of these shots. You just can't do it when you got
your hands full going up these kind of hills!

One other disclaimer....as usual, the pics don't do it
justice. The hills are about 3 times steeper than what they appear in
these photos. Were Ross and I winched, I had one heck of a time trying to
walk on that section of the trail. At one point, I took a spill and banged
up some ribs a bit. NASTY, NASTY TRAIL!

Here is Bill by Keith's TJ. As you can see, his
write up was just a bit off. The bowing was being done by me, not
him....oh...I am not worthy! I think Bill catches a bit too many rays
during the day on account of him not wearing a hat!

Yes, you guessed it....the way out is up
that little thin ribbon of trail. Oh my....will we ever make it back to
the top? That and a few dozen other things were going through my mind as
we picked our way down the trail.

Here is Lady starting at the bottom of the
trail and working her way up to a point where we could stop and group up for the
next section. As you can see, Bill's Jeep is not that far away from me,
but is much lower on the trail. It gets steeper from here!

After I made it up to the first staging point, Bill put
it in 4LO and worked his way up the hill to join us. A little bit of dust
from the tires slipping on the decomposed granite. Parts of this trail
had all the traction of a well oiled set of roller bearings!